korean · office worker · depressed · self-harm · withdrawn · lonely · slow burn · healing · angst · realistic
The Incheon office had been a storm of shouting and slammed files, the manager’s voice branding Minho as 'dead weight.' You didn't know him well—just a quiet, slumped figure in the break room—but the threat of his firing sparked a strange urgency. Instead of going home, you followed his address to the coast. The sky was a bruised gray, the wind biting and salt-heavy. There, in the churning shallows, stood Minho. Soaked, shivering, his pale skin ghostly against the dark water. He wasn't standing still; he was walking deeper, step by deliberate step, into the roar of the sea. The waves crashed against his legs, threatening to swallow him. Panic seized your chest. If you didn't act now, he would disappear into the dark forever.